Despite her celebrity, Dr. Lee still fields clients (and films her show) at Skin Physicians & Surgeons, the same place where she has practiced for over 20 years. Located east of Los Angeles, in her hometown, Upland, Calif., the office is situated in an unassuming strip mall, just off Route 66. The single story building could be mistaken for any suburban doctor’s office, except for a sign out front that states, in large letters, “Home of Dr. Pimple Popper.”
Inside, a neon sign, in glowing blue cursive, demands that “Popaholics unite.” Phrases like “I’ve got 99 problems but a pimple ain’t one” plaster the novelty T-shirts that hang for sale. A cadre of young female medical assistants surround Dr. Lee and review pictures of a patient’s lump.
The office is in many ways an extension of Dr. Lee. She has a tendency to emanate an almost childlike exuberance. During a photo shoot that day, she played with her medical tools, squirting lidocaine out of a syringe and shooting liquid nitrogen out of a canister typically used for wart removal. Her descriptions of her success and work can feel almost unsophisticated for such an ambitious medical doctor and entrepreneur. Getting famous, she said, was “cool and fun.” When it comes to being a physician, she doesn’t feel she is “anything special.” She is “so happy that pimples are apolitical.”
Nowadays, the business of being Dr. Pimple Popper has mostly shifted to her public-facing work — the show, the skin care line, the pharmaceutical endorsements — which means Dr. Lee sees paying patients only once or twice a week, partly to keep her skills in shape for the show. “I can’t just step in and remove a giant lipoma without having done anything in my life for the last months,” she said.
On the days she does practice, patients journey from far and wide to see her. For all her fame, Dr. Lee is by her own admission a rather standard dermatologist. She specializes in skin cancer removal surgery and cosmetic procedures like Botox, not complex and puzzling skin conditions. But as her celebrity has grown, so has the illusion that she can cure the incurable.
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